Steinberg Leaving Michigan for Florida; Qualifier Crawley Reaches Semis at Wichita $25K; Walton Ends Quinn's Winning Streak; Montgomery and Krueger Meet for Spot in WTA 125 Final; Wimbledon Qualifying Wild Cards Set

With the heart of the recruiting season officially underway, the University of Florida had to fill its men's head coaching position as soon as possible. Three weeks ago, Bryan Shelton announced he was retiring from Florida to coach his son Ben full time; today, Athletic Director Scott Stricklin announced that Michigan's Adam Steinberg has been hired to lead the program.

Steinberg, who coached Pepperdine to the 2006 NCAA team championship, has been at Michigan since 2014. In 2016, he was announced as the head coach at Arizona State, which was bringing back men's tennis, but nine days later he returned to Michigan, citing personal reasons. Steinberg compiled a 172-64 record in his nine years at Michigan, with the Wolverines reaching the NCAA quarterfinals the past two years.

When the Florida position opened, the game of musical chairs began, with that job likely to attract a top coach from another Power Five school. The Michigan job is an attractive one, but the team loses its top three players, so there is rebuilding to be done in Ann Arbor. Although it has not been announced officially, associate head coach Benjamin Becker is said to be leaving and returning to Germany, so unless this impacts his plans, Michigan will have two positions to fill.

ITA Player of the Year Fiona Crawley, a rising senior at North Carolina, is through to the semifinals of the women's $25,000 USTA Pro Circuit tournament in Wichita. The 21-year-old from Texas, who has played almost no pro tennis in the past three years, defeated No. 4 seed Ashley Lahey(Pepperdine) 6-4, 6-0, her fifth win this week, with the first two coming in qualifying. Crawley will face former Florida All-American Mccartney Kessler; the unseeded 23-year-old from Georgia defeated Grace Min 2-6, 6-1, 6-3.

In the bottom half, No. 2 seed Stacey Fung(Washington) of Canada, will play No. 6 seed Gabriela Lee(Texas Tech) of Romania.

NCAA singles champion Ethan Quinn(Georgia) lost for the first time in 24 matches, with the No. 7 falling to top seed Adam Walton(Tennessee) of Australia 6-2, 7-6(5) in the quarterfinals of the men's $25,000 USTA Pro Circuit tournament in Tulsa. Walton will face No. 3 seed Aidan McHugh in the semifinals; in the bottom half, No. 6 seed Alfredo Perez(Florida) will play No. 2 seed Nick Chappell(TCU). 

At the men's $15,000 USTA Pro Circuit tournament in South Bend, former Notre Dame star Axel Nefve, who played his fifth year at Florida in the No. 1 position, reached the semifinals with a 6-4, 6-1 win over Edward Winter of Australia, a rising freshman at Pepperdine. Nefve will face Ohio State rising senior JJ Tracy, who beat wild card Ryan Fishback(Virginia Tech) 7-5, 6-1. As in Tulsa, all semifinalists have college experience. In the top half, No. 1 seed Strong Kirchheimer(Northwestern), a 3-6, 7-6(7), 6-3 winner over qualifier Colton Smith(Arizona), will take on Blaise Bicknell(Florida/Tennessee) of Jamaica. No. 6 seed Bicknell beat No. 4 seed Aidan Kim 6-3, 6-3.

The fourth men's semifinalist will be decided later tonight at the $15,000 tournament in Los Angeles, but two qualifiers are through and will play each other for a spot in Sunday's final. Quinn Vandecasteele(Oregon) defeated No. 6 seed Stefan Dostanic(USC) 6-3, 6-1 and will face Ryan Seggerman(Princeton/UNC), who beat No. 8 seed Karim Al Allaf(Iowa) 7-6(7), 6-1.  No. 3 seed Omni Kumar(Duke) will face the winner of tonight's match between No. 2 seed Alafia Ayeni(Cornell/Kentucky) and qualifier Jonas Ziverts(Arizona) of Sweden.

All four of the women's semifinalists at the $15,000 tournament in Los Angeles also have collegiate ties, with two currently and one formerly a UCLA Bruin. 

NCAA singles champion Fangran Tian, the No. 5 seed and a rising sophomore at UCLA, defeated No. 2 seed Savanna Ly-Nguyen(Washington State) of Vietnam 6-3, 6-3 to set up a second meeting in the past three weeks with teammate Kimmi Hance, a rising junior at UCLA. Hance, the No. 3 seed, beat wild card Amelia Honer(UC Santa Barbara) 6-4, 3-6, 6-1 in the quarterfinals. Tian defeated Hance 6-1, 6-1 in the second round of the $15K in San Diego, with Tian going on to take the title.

Taylor Johnson, who spent four years at UCLA before transferring to SMU for her just completed fifth year, reached the semifinals with a 4-6, 6-3, 7-5, three-hour and 25-minute win over doubles partner and fellow qualifier Nikki Redelijk(Pepperdine). She will play No. 8 seed Jessica Alsola(Cal), who beat 15-year-old qualifier Aspen Schuman 6-7(4), 6-2, 6-0.

Two unseeded American teenagers have advanced to the semifinals of the WTA 125 grass tournament in Italy, with Robin Montgomery and Ashlyn Krueger meeting Saturday for a spot in the final. 

Montgomery, 18, defeated No. 3 seed Ysaline Bonaventure of Belgium 6-4, 6-2, while Krueger, 19, took out No. 7 seed Lucrezia Stefanini of Italy 6-2, 6-1. Montgomery and Krueger, the 2021 USTA National 18s and US Open girls doubles champions, have played twice on the Pro Circuit, with Krueger taking both matches. Both are entered in the Wimbledon qualifying next week.

Speaking of Wimbledon qualifying, all the wild cards are now accounted for, after the LTA's Wild Card Playoff today. All four women's semifinalists were given qualifying wild cards: Naiktha Bains, Anna Brogan, Eden Silva and Emily Appleton. Sonay Kartal, who was originally given a qualifying wild card was promoted to a main draw wild card, so there are no more women's main draw wild cards available. The ninth qualifying wild card was not given out.

The men's qualifying wild cards from the LTA's Playoff are Dan Cox, Stuart Parker and Harry Wendelken. There are still two men's main draw wild cards available, as well as men's and women's doubles wild cards to be distributed.  Sebastian Ofner of Austria, who is in the grass Challenger final in Ilkley, is a likely recipient of one of the main draw wild cards; his current ATP ranking is 81. 

The updated Wimbledon wild card list is here.